Financial news

Bulgaria’s unemployment rate stood at 9.2% in September, 0.1 percentage points down from a month earlier and 1.3 percentage points lower than in September 2014, the country's Employment Agency said. A total of 302,775 unemployed were registered with the agency’s offices at the end of last month, posting a decrease by 4,046 from August and 42,600 fewer than in September 2014, the agency said in a statement. The number of people who found a job in September totalled 19,999. The number of registered open positions in September was 16,479. Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, has a population of around 7.3 million.

Bulgaria registered a monthly inflation of negative 0.1 % in September. Since the beginning of the year Bulgaria recorded a deflation of 0.5 %, while the annual inflation stood at 0.1 %. The prices of the following goods and services increased in September: food products and soft drinks (1.6%); alcoholic drinks and tobacco products (0.1 %); dwelling and utility bills (0.2 %); healthcare (0.2 %); education (1.9 %). The prices of the following goods and services decreased in September: clothing and shoes (0.6%); transport (4.6 %); messages (0.1 %); entertainment and culture (5.3%); restaurants and hotels (0.5%). The prices of housing furniture and domestic appliances retained their level from the previous month. The prices of medicines and other pharmaceutical services increased by 0.2 %, while those of medical services grew by 0.1 % The prices of dental services retained their level from the previous month.

	Mineral Fuels, Tailoring Products, Canning, Perfumery and Cosmetics, Furniture, Meat Products, Wine, Wood-processing Industry

Companies

Subsidiary of Trace Group Hold AD - Trace Nis AD signed two contracts for road and construction works in Serbia totalling EUR 334.1 thousand. The first contract is for maintenance and is assessed at EUR 256 262.79 without VAT. Funding is provided by public company "Roads of Serbia" Belgrade, and contractor is Trace PG Nis AD. Under the signed agreement on 2 October periodic maintenance, which includes the earth and asphalt works, traffic signalling, and displacement of fiber optic cable will be carried out. Implementation is planned for a period of 60 calendar days. The second contract is for maintenance and rehabilitation of the road for Chagrovats municipality Gadžin Han in Serbia. Its value is EUR 77 844.71, while the deadline for implementation is 47 calendar days. In the last year Trace Nis signed contracts for repair and maintenance of streets in the area of the municipalities of Nis, Pirot and Babusnica totaling over EUR 1 million.

The delayed construction of the interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria IGB has bestirred US diplomacy. The interconnector is designed to reduce Bulgaria's dependence on Russian natural gas, with the prospect of being extended to Romania, Hungary and possibly the countries around the Baltic Sea. Special envoy and coordinator for US international relations in the field of energy Amos Hokstayn has been on a visit to Athens since yesterday and has already met with Greek State Minister Nikos Pappas and US Ambassador to Greece David Pierce. Early this morning he will meet with Greek Minister of Environment and Energy Panos Skourletis and a trilateral meeting with the participation of Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova will take place immediately afterwards. Kathimerini writes that the visit of Amos Hokstayn aims to prepare the official visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry to Athens in mid-November. The interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria is key to US diplomacy because of the opportunity provided to the Balkan countries to stop being dependent on the natural gas of the Russian Gazprom company.

Bulgarian software developer Sirma Group said  its unit EngView, a package and display designer company, signed a partnership deal with Croatia's Grafik.net for the distribution of the Bulgarian company's products in Southeastern Europe (SEE). Under the partnership deal, Grafik.net will distribute EngView's products in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Kosovo. EngView, founded in 1999, focuses on creating software solutions in packaging, measurement, quality control and inventory management. Croatian graphic company Grafik.net, established in 2000, has over 80 clients in the region.

Technology company for IT services Accedia won “Top ICT Employer” of 2015. The company specializes in providing consulting services, outsourcing of software development and creation of comprehensive software solutions for small and medium businesses and for large multinational corporations. Last Accedia was the winner in the “Small companies up to 50 employees” in the ranking. Second position in the final ranking took SiteGround – a company providing web hosting services based in Bulgaria and successfully competing in the US market with some of the most famous companies in its field of activity, and a third is a software company Comptel Communications, which provides technology services and solutions to the telecommunications industry. Accedia head and sector ranking in the category “Deploying software” and SiteGround lead in “IT services”. In the sector “Outsourcing of IT services” winner is 60K, company exported services, which employs over 700 employees serving companies in the sectors of e-commerce, telecommunications, IT and software, entertainment, travel and leisure, finance and insurance and so on.

Bulgaria’s Societe Generale Expressbank will lend up to BGN 20 million to coal mining complex Mini Maritsa Iztok, a notice in the EU’s procurement journal indicated on Wednesday. Societe Generale Expressbank was the only bidder in the credit granting services tender, the notice published in the Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) showed. The value of the contract is BGN 580,000.

Europe

Europe's climate change chief says he is astonished at the positive progress by governments towards a global deal on CO2. Miguel Arias Cañete said it was "quite astounding" that 149 nations have published their plans to curb carbon emissions. Nations have been announcing plans ahead of the Paris climate summit. "We have countries which together produce nearly 90% of global emissions - so that's a big effort. If we compare it with the Kyoto Protocol - the first time we tried an international agreement to help global warming - there were only 35 countries and they covered less than 14% of emissions. "It's quite astounding. The most important things is that the commitments are not only figures or targets - it shows countries are developing climate policies in a very comprehensive way." Mr Cañete said the key was that instead of a UN conference imposing top-down targets, governments were volunteering their own action plans. "There is no complacency - but we if we had kept on going with business as usual (ever-rising carbon emissions), global temperature would have raised between 3.8 and 4.7C," he said. "We estimate that current commitments achieve about 3C maximum. That's a big step, although clearly it's not enough." The generally agreed maximum "safe" temperature rise is 2C - although some vulnerable nations say this is not safe for them.

America

Ford Motor Co. is betting that a new generation of smartcars will help its rides stand out in China, where its sales have been slipping amid industrywide weakness and rising competition. The U.S. car maker said on Monday it will invest 11.4 billion yuan, or USD 1.8 billion, over the next five years to research how to add greater smartphone connectivity, autonomous driving and other smartcar features to its Chinese products. With that investment, the next generation of Ford vehicles for China will be designed around customers there, said Ford Chief Executive Mark Fields. Ford is hoping the R&D spending push in China will help it develop smartcar features specifically tailored to Chinese drivers. Currently Ford is seeking to install smartcar systems in China using technology it developed and uses in other markets. The announcement came at a time that growth of China’s car market has stalled amid a cooling economy and local curbs on car ownership to stem pollution and traffic. China’s new-car sales fell 3.4% to 1.42 million vehicles in August from a year earlier.

Asia

Private wealth measured in dollars fell 4.7 percent to USD 250.1 trillion in the 12 months through June, the first decline since the 2008 financial crisis, as the greenback rose against other currencies, according to Credit Suisse. Net worth valued in dollars dropped in every region except China and North America during the period. The Swiss bank’s prediction is based on the global economy accelerating “slightly” and China’s economy “stabilizing” as it continues its transition toward consumption and services. While wealth has doubled since 2000, including a fivefold increase in China, the pace of growth has slowed in recent years. The richest 0.7 percent of the world’s population own 45.2 percent of global wealth. A stronger dollar led the number of super-rich with a net worth of more than USD 50 million to decline by 800 since mid-2014. The dollar climbed 8 percent against the pound, 17 percent versus the yen and 19 percent versus the euro between June 2014 and June 2015, according to the report. Credit Suisse sees emerging markets out-pacing higher-income countries, even after a plunge in China’s stock market in June and the devaluation of the yuan triggered a sell-off across financial markets over the summer. Wealth in China will surge more than 9 percent a year, based on the country’s economy advancing 6.2 percent a year, Credit Suisse forecasts.

Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Neofit was born on October 15, 1945 in Sofia. He is a graduate of the Theology Academy in Sofia, and specialized in Moscow. Neofit is a former lecturer and conductor of the Theology Academy choir, coadjutor at Sofia Bishopric, President of the Theology Academy, first Dean of the restored Faculty of Theology at Sofia University, and was Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod. He is known to have been very close to late Patriarch Maxim. Bulgaria's Patriarch Maxim, who led the Church since 1971, passed away on November 6, 2012, at the age of 98.

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